Removing the Middle-man... not as easy as it seems...

A long time ago (fictional), Mr Patel and friends brought some exotic fruits from the north to Singaporeans. Citing health benefits and fresh ingenuity, they encouraged interest from the masses and, slowly, created a sizable market for the fruits. Seeing the developing interest and the huge market appetite, Mr Goh set up a hyper-supermarket for the suppliers and buyers, cutting away the middle-man. This ensures that buyers/sellers alike are able to buy and settle directly at the super-market. Turns out Mr Patel and friends were not too happy about it and refused to endorse the supermarket. Their continued non-appearance at the market caused a lot of concerns. IS there something wrong with the supermarket?

Some think so, at least for the first listed credit derivatives exchange market.

What's a credit derivative? A credit derivative is a contract (derivative) to transfer the risk of the total return on a credit asset falling below an agreed level, without transfer of the underlying asset e.g. if I were to buy a bond issued by Mama Megacorp and am afraid of the bond defaulting, I can buy "protection" by entering into a credit derivatives swap with a bank to pay them a certain fee every period (eg quarterly). In return, should the bond issuer defaults, the bank will have to buy the bond from me (at par) regardless of whatever the trading price of the bond is now. Hedge funds also use it to gain synthetic exposure to certain names at a cheaper cost of funding.

I guess the banks are probably not keen on sharing the billion-dollar pie with someone else and hence not interested in supporting this initiative. Buy-in is especially important for such an exchange as the purpose of having such an exchange is to improve liquidity, eliminate mis-pricing and generate interest.

As my mama says, the first step is always the hardest.

Got work, no pay?

A long time since I last blogged. This was supposed to be a most ideal week since I am off work for training. That means a regular 9 - 5 (sometimes less) hours where I can spend more time at home and think less about snowballs, skylines, DRAs and volbonds. Then Murphy's Law came in.

The internet went down.

I have been expecting this for some time since I terminated my subscription back in early Nov last year. However, the ISP has not cancelled the line and I have since been using it for "free" (some problems on the payment but too lengthy to share). And it finally came back or so I thought on Monday. I "crashed". No news to read, no emails to check, no blog to write - I ended up getting a better rest every night! In my desperation I went to sign up a new contract with another ISP which I thought was a good deal. Suddenly, last night...

... the connection resurrected! Now I am back to less sleep and more surf! Carrying a vociferous appetite to devour all news that I missed over the last 4 days, I went onto BBC, CNN, ABC, Asiaone. This article caught my attention for a longer-than-usual time. Unlike Singapore, London is a huge contractors' market where a number of people prefers to work as self-employed and temporary instead of going permanent on the pay roll as the salary is significantly higher. This is so as staff benefits such as insurance, healthcare and holiday eave are crystalised into cash benefits and imputed into the hourly/weekly rate. Taxes are also much lower as cash flow management is done via the set-up of a limited company. As I am posted over, I can't choose this option. Ms Wee however is one such example.

Most of these staff are paid weekly (usually on a Friday), so this technical glitch is bad news. Bad news especially since I need Ms Wee to pay off the rental, buy the latest gizmo and my weekly MacDonalds treat.

Sigh, I just have to wait for my toys.

Jesus' unanswered (yet) prayer...

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe you have sent me." John 17:20

Today's preaching was based on this passage where Jesus was praying for himself, his disciples and believers in the Garden of Gethsemane. Why is it still an unanswered prayer? Because the Christian world today is so fragmented, broken up into hundreds of denomination.

I was puzzled - that though we may have different opinions on doctrines, essentially we are still serving and worshiping the one same God. Yet the unification is more than just the God we worship but a unification of the same spirit, working together in humility and not getting sidetracked over divisive matters (I agree that the last has been a problematic issue).

I am not sure why Pastor Chua chose to speak on this today. We were certainly not prepared for this. Has there been a divisive spirit in the church? I am hardly aware of such in the church but as he touched on unity and support for a new senior pastor (Elder Loo) and the soon-to-be independent Chinese congregation, you could sense a certain undercurrent.

To lead is to serve. And to be of one, there cannot exist a situation where a part of the body think it's superior to the others. "Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you should also wash one another's feet... I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them."

The next event shocked us. Pastor Chua, all of 70+ years, suddenly knelt down before a Chinese congregation leader and Mrs Loo (as Peter was not around) and wiped their shoes (as the two were not told). And he asked to be able to serve them and to submit to Peter's authority (when Pastor Chua hand over this senior pastor's position).

That brought tears to everyone. Someone whom the church respect. A fatherly figure to many. As he continued, leaders in church started to clean the feet of the lay people. I saw my CGL cleaning the feet of Shu Kar and Richard. It was indeed an amazing sight to behold. Humility and servanthood personified.

From heaven you came, helpless babe

Entered our world, Your glory veiled

Not to be served, but to serve

And give Your life that we might live


This is our God, the servant King

He calls us now to follow Him

To bring our lives as a daily offering

Of worship to the servant King

Absolute Clanger

As I have mentioned earlier on the miss of the season, here's the clip promised. His expression tells it all.

The day has arrived...

Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes. - Benjamin Franklin

There is one more certainty in London. When Friday comes around and you suddenly hear applause in the office in the late afternoon, you know someone is leaving. The "clapping" appears rather frequently during the year and peaks just after bonus. You know why.

So I was not surprised when I heard clapping in the afternoon. Well, it's Friday afternoon and someone in FX PCG seems to be leaving. Suddenly I noticed a crowd around me. Yes, the time has come for me. The day which I thought was never to come 8 months ago came. And now, time just happened to fly past me like lightning.

Unlike corporate culture in Singapore, colleagues in London pool some dough to "celebrate" the departure of a colleague and the leaving colleague in turn buys drinks at the local pub. As I was not leaving (just moving on to another department), I did not quite expect this. After all, that did not happen in my last rotation. To see 15 people gathered around me and having my boss to give a speech about my stay in the department can be quite daunting. And I have to give a speech as well. They did however buy some stuff for me, even though I had no drinks on the agenda.



A shirt from T M Lewin, hair gel and some soap bars plus a card. Weird? Yeah but it was a very nice gesture and something we can all learn from.

For some strange reasons, I hung around for a while even though it was time to go (that was what my colleagues said). Maybe when you like something, it is harder to let go.

Why bother with explanations?

Following my earlier post re the Government's intention (actually a foregone conclusion) to review civil servants' salaries, one of the highest paid civil servant in the world has came out to suggest he wants a bigger piece of the cake.

Why don't they do this in election year?

Wastage has began...

Democratic primary has not really commenced but the fight has started.

(p/s: the second clip is funnier)

She might be smarter than you think...

We know her natural affinity towards anything thick, bouncy and comfy. Her ability to engage in deep discussion with the unknown and effortless proficiency to slip away into the dark. Now, there is more than all these we reckon. The British Government actually thinks quite highly of her to consider her a highly skilled migrant. This means she can continue to work in the UK until March 2009 (maybe that is when we will return?).

God has certainly been very wonderful in all of this as an application typically takes between 5 to 9 weeks to process. We only submitted the passport 2 weeks back and were worried that we might not get it back in time for our next trip over Easter. God answered our prayers!

Will I be outta a job soon?

(Lets go to the shop there to get our new jerseys)

The inevitable has to happen as one seeks the higher echleon of the banking system. Organic growth has its limitations in an environment marked by incessant mergers and acquisitions. One would say it's a dog-eat-dog world. Like vultures preying on injured lambs, the one who swoops early catches (and enjoys) the prize. So Barclays takeover talks with ABN Amro does not surprise me. There were earlier talks and rumours of ABN Amro as a takeover target given its less than flattering results. Netherlands' biggest bank? Time for a new successor.

Have a read and I will pen my thoughts to this over the next few days.

Xueyan's 25!

It's easy to be slack in a relationship especially when we have been dating for 6 years and have known each other for more than 10. Still, it's the little things that count in a courtship and remember the reasons why we are together.

So we decided to have a good evening meal together where neither of us have to cook and to have it at a nice place - Gaucho Grill at Canary Riverside, overlooking River Thames. We arrived promptly at 7, having done the reservation yesterday. We had a selection of bread to begin and there was this thick, cheesy bread which went down really well.

Although Gaucho is known for steak, we gave it a pass as we were not into beef. I had Adobo Chicken which is a boneless marinated half-chicken, served with garlic confit potato puree. Xueyan ordered a delightful Zarzuela De Mariscos, a seafood platter served in a saffron broth with asparagus, potato and toasted poilane bread. Very nice. Not before I had a glass of Weinert 'Montfleury’ (rose wine), a good aperitif before the main. The ever-obedient Xueyan stuck to her diet Coke.

The main was very filling but we could not help ourselves to dessert (Singaporeans mah). My chocolate truffle cake was especially thick and sweet. Xueyan's foray into a Dulce de Luche cheesecake did not fare too badly as I eyed it with envy throughout dessert time. We ended up extremely full. On a even better note, the final bill turned out to be very kind.

London experienced hailstones today which meant we had the chance to burn off the calories for our brisk walk home. Conclusion - a amazing meal and glad that her birthday doesn't come around every week!

On a separate note, Tua Yee and myself bought presents for Xueyan. Which do you think was from me?

What a miss!

The scoreline reads 3-3. You receive the ball. No defenders around. You gallop towards the goal and dribble past the goalkeeper. The goal in sight! You speed towards the net, and with the ball on the goal line, you raise your hands in premature celebration, in full knowledge that millions of people around the world are watching and eagerly anticipating the glorious flourish. Then something else happen.

You trip over the ball and the ball is cleared away!

Well, that didn't happen over the weekend in the English Premier League. But something similar happened to a Mr Juan Manuel Leguizamon, an Argentine playing in the Rugby Union League in front of a record crowd.

(clip to follow once it's available)

That reminded me of what I consider the worst miss ever in football. For your viewing pleasure.

State of Healthcare in UK

I am a typical-armchair critic of Singapore's general policies. But there is one thing I have grown to appreciate Singapore ever since I came over - health care.

The costs of health care is a teething issue in Singapore and has been a source of debate in the parliament house, in the newspapers and at the local void deck coffee shops. What's indisputable is the quality of health care in Singapore (yes, there were a few wrongly-diagnosed cases but those are outliers).

There was a huge protest over the weekend by doctors (doctors? Doctors?). The introduction of a centralised allocation system to allocate junior doctors to their specialisation. Basically 30,000 junior doctors going for 22,000 places with their life careers determined by an Intel chip and a home-grown software. Even the government thinks it has done wrong somewhere but this new allocation system still went through.

How it works.

Until last year junior doctors went through three stages of training - pre-registration house officer, senior house officer and finally specialist registrar.

Under the government's 'Modernising Medical Careers' reforms there are now just two training phases - a two-year foundation programme followed by a specialist training programme.

After the foundation stage, the junior doctors will choose their area of specialisation and in the preferred areas for their training. They will submit an online application which makes no reference to their results or feedback from senior doctors. After that? Pray for an interview.

I had lunch with an ophthalmologist (Mr A), who is a soon-to-be specialist registrar. He shared with me this view on this system and I have tried to present them below as far as my memory can hold.

1. Junior doctors cannot re-apply for their preference once allocated by the system. As in Singapore and UK previously, junior doctors can always re-apply if they are not selected for the specialist training. Now in UK, it's take-it-or-leave-it.

2. As there are only 22,000 jobs for 30,ooo junior doctors, some choose to play safe by applying for specialisations which they think are unpopular OR going to certain parts (Mr A said God-forsaken) of UK where they have a higher chance of getting their preferred specialisation. But that means uprooting to go to Scotland for example.

3. Specialists having to train "new people" or "disinterested juniors". The senior specialist can previously use his sphere of influence to "enroll" interested juniors or use his judgement to determine if a junior doctor is suitable. Now even if he finds a highly-talented or motivated potential neurosurgeon, the system might think otherwise and may end up working with someone like me (I usually play safe).

4. Loss of jobs for non-UK or EU citizens. It's natural to give locals preference and I think that's fair. Even Singaporeans complain of "foreign talents", so it's only understandable that the system trends towards the UK/Europeans. Some of Mr A's Malaysians/Singaporeans colleagues have been told to leave, in full knowledge that they will not be allocated an interview or position. Some of them have been training for 5-6 years and is THAT close to becoming a registrar, only to be told that their contract will end in August-07 (when the new system kicks in).

So fellow Singaporeans, be glad that we have interested specialists in Singapore, available to us at an affordable cost (ignore fly-by-night Bangkok "specialists").

Have a great weekend

The Ang Mohs love you

Well, not exactly just the ang mohs but expats who work in Asia has voted Singapore as the best city to live.

Surprised? Not so for me considering the factors (eg climate, air quality, health services, housing and utilities, leisure facilities, infrastructure, personal safety and political tensions) that were used in the compilation of the survey results. Hmmm, so what's left out of this survey that could potentially affect our ranking - work-life balance (OT anyone?), political/social democracy? That aside, my British friends often praised Singapore for her clean, sunny state and some have verbalised their intentions to work in Singapore in the near future. I, too, would one day want to return to the best city in in Asia (not so much for the work though). Moreover, this is not a one-off "victory" for Singapore to hao lian about since the sunny island was also voted the best city last year.

So what's the real deal here? This is, after all, a survey involving Asian Expats, not working Singaporeans. While they might like it here, they tend to be transient as compared to a normal working Singaporean. Things that matter to a Singaporean might not be of relevance to an expat (eg education, democracy). Similarly, I would think London is a great place to work/live but not necessarily as a final destination to plant roots here.

Knowing how the press works in Singapore, here's the other side of the coin.

Interesting Read

In light of the recent furore re flats purchase, I recommend an interesting read on Andrew's blog. I have also added my comments to this perennial debate of good (HDB) vs evil (condo).

We had contemplated getting a condo on our return to Singapore. My personal preference is a landed property. But is it worth it? Share your views.

Call to arms - be a civil servant

When I was young, my mum used to say - 长大后,要用功读书,才能找到政府工. Iron rice-bowl, some say.

What a change it has been for the government to suggest a review (why use review, use increase!) of the civil servants' pay. Another shameless excuse to milk the cow.

It is also a move to lower resignation rates of civil servants, especially those at entry level, where one in four quit in 2006.

Has the government ever considered that it might not be the pay? Take for example the latest(exaggerated) film by Jack Neo, Just Follow Law. It depicts the "battles" within a typical statutory board when people work to cover their backs, scholars are offered with opportunities aplenty and staff are perpetually punctual - at knocking off. My friends who are/were in civil service agreed with the portrayal. If that is indeed the case, why wouldn't people quit? Resignation is not often based on pay. Other factors such as job challenge, personal fulfillment and career progression are equally important.

If the government decides to match public sector salary with the findings from SMU's survey, it will have to pay entry-level civil servants at least $2,850 a month. That is the average starting pay of SMU graduates in 2006, which is 13 percent more than their 2005 counterparts.

This had me laughing and equally amazed at the suggestion offered by the writer. SMU is primarily a business institution and as we all know, graduates with business-related degrees tend to enjoy a higher starting salary. Hence applying the average increase of business graduates' starting pay to the biggest employer of Singapore's labour, who hires from all functions, is akin to comparing apples with durians (not even oranges!).

On that note, there is nothing you or I can do about it. It's all about getting the excuses to facilitate a FOREGONE conclusion. Watch the announcement in April.

Telegraph-Eurostar Promotion

Eurostar is currently running a promotion with Telegraph. Trip to Paris costs £90 for two (fairly good deal). Managed to book two tickets for Xuefeng and Tua Yee for Paris and ourselves in June for Brussels. Seems like the whole world is on it ever since the four passwords were released today.

Anyway for those who want the passwords.
1. Discover
2. Wine
3. Indulge
4. Cuisine

Have fun!

Zero-sum Game

There are always winners and losers in the stock market, akin to a zero-sum game. I remember losing a good part of my savings during NS days when I was so caught up in the trading frenzy and especially after making small contra earnings. I am glad my demise did not turn out as bad as this young man. Because I do know someone in the exact same situation back in Uni, who is still paying back his loans (and losses).

Let this be a good warning.

If God wants you, your credentials dun matter...

Ashley's recent post touched me. Not because I was particularly sad about her Shell rejection. Rather, I also went for an "informal chat". I have been very successful at interviews ever since I first applied for a scholarship with SAF. Then came Arthur Andersen, Amex Tokyo, KPMG, and now (and last) being Barclays Capital. In the small, safe environment of Singapore, I have always felt confident. Until now.

I always thought my credentials were strong until I met the likes of Oxbridge and Imperial College graduates, MBAs from LBS, Insead and the Ivy leagues, Phds in mathematics and quantum physics in my small circle of friends/colleagues. Now I (and you) know who I am up against. So applications have not been very successful here and I have never felt so low before in confidence. Conclusion? A case of misplaced confidence and lack of awareness of God's blessings (so far).

But "When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus." (Acts 4:13)

This has encouraged me. That it doesn't matter who I am up against or what I am supposed to do. Because God use ordinary people to do extra-ordinary things. The more I rely on my own strength, the harder it is. God desire active obedience. Networking does matter, building up a CV does, having the confidence to talk does. But God can do more without any of these.

Be remembered as a person after God's heart. Not one who tries to be like God.

I thought I was supposed to be studying

Our first weekend at gym has finally taken its toll on us. Xueyan swam for more than an hour while I ran, biked and bulked for the same time. Having a sumptuous dim sum lunch with CG friends after the workout session certainly helps in re-channelling the few remaining blood cells from the brain to stomach.

What to do? Sleep loh.